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An epidemic of enterovirus 71 (EV71) infection compatible with hand, foot and mouth disease and associated with high morbidity and mortality occurred in Taiwan in 1998. We recruited 90 patients (50 males, 40 females) with definite EV71 infections for clinical and laboratory analysis. The neurological signs and symptoms, all of which occurred during the febrile period, in patients with central nervous system (CNS) involvement (aseptic meningitis, encephalitis or myelitis) were myoclonic jerks (23/33), vomiting (10/33), ataxia (7/33), lethargy (6/33), seizure (4/33) and tremor (2/33). Patients with CNS involvement had longer durations of fever (4.6+/-0.2 vs. 3.1+/-0.3 d; p

To report the in vitro antibiotic susceptibility of Campylobacter species, we determined the MICs of 6 antibiotics by E-test for 93 human clinical strains and 35 chicken strains. The 6 antimicrobial agents tested were gentamicin, erythromycin, clindamycin, tetracycline, ciprofloxacin, and nalidixic acid. Isolates from humans were significantly more susceptible than chicken strains to erythromycin, clindamycin and ciprofloxacin. Nearly all of the human and chicken strains were susceptible to gentamicin. Among human isolates of C. jejuni, cross-resistance between nalidixic acid and ciprofloxacin was found in 66% of the strains, but none of the nalidixic acid-susceptible strains was resistant to ciprofloxacin. The higher prevalence of ciprofloxacin resistance in this area may be attributable to the large amount use of quinolones in poultry. Because of the high resistance rates of chicken isolates to the commonly used antimicrobial agents, it is necessary to create innovative methods to limit the inappropriate use of antibiotics in poultry in order to prevent the spread of the drug-resistant strains to humans.